Sri Lanka’s Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe has resigned after party leaders in Parliament demanded that both he and the country’s embattled president resign on the same day protesters stormed the president’s residence and office.
Ranil Wickremesinghe said in a tweet that, “To ensure the continuation of the Government including the safety of all citizens I accept the best recommendation of the Party Leaders today, to make way for an All-Party Government. To facilitate this I will resign as Prime Minister.”
Dinouk Colambage, the prime minister’s spokesman, said Wickremesinghe told party leaders that he will resign once all parties have agreed on forming a new government.
His decision came after the largest protest in Sri Lanka history on Saturday, when tens of thousands of people broke through barricades and stormed President Gotabaya Rajapaksa’s residence and nearby office to express their rage at a leader they blame for the country’s worst economic crisis.
According to reports several military personnel have joined the protest for the first time in the history of the nation.
Earlier in the day, protesters forced railway authorities to operate trains to Colombo for a rally on Saturday, officials said.
